Well all I can say is that it's just as well I did not have any plans to keep a girl from Cointreau's litter to add to our own breeding program as it would appear she has given us 4 boys! I will not say that I am 200% certain they are male, however, the signs are definitely leaning towards 4 boys and no girls at all. This will of course mean that Dawn, Duncan and Larry will have some family discussions coming up I think :) (yes I did receive your email but still haven't had time to reply yet sorry). As you can tell by the photos below all 4 of our Burps are doing incredibly well and they are at that fantastic age when the whole world is new to them and there is too much to see, sniff and do all in one day. Their kitten games and wrestling matches are becoming far more frequent and they are such time wasters because I could sit and watch them play for hours. I will say to you not to be encouraged by the fact that a couple of the photos show babies in the litter tray because they are not using their tray yet for going to the toilet, they are using it merely as a new "play thing". But on a good note, at least none of them are eating the litter :)

I sometimes can't believe just how quickly the babies seem to mature and develop as each day passes. They are certainly all becoming more beautiful without a doubt :) I can confirm now that 2 of our Burps have passed the 500 gram mark and this time it was not a mistake. Honestly, I did double check it :) The size of these children really does astound me because it's fairly common knowledge that our babies are not the biggest babies in the world during their 13 weeks with us (don't worry though, they do all grow into large babies as adults), and I think this is probably one of the biggest size litters we have actually had. I find this fascinating because whilst Sheridans produces massive children for us, Cointreau is from a line of fine boned, elegant Orientals, yet not one of her children has their mother's build, or indeed, any of the ancestors on their mum's side. Fanta confirmed to me today that is is defintely time for the children to be moved out of their space and into the bigger part of the room tomorrow and he proved this by waiting until I had the door to their section open so I could feed Cointreau, he spotted his opportunity and he was off! To my utter amazement he was galloping out through the open door and running over to see what our older babies were doing. He was hastily scooped up and put back in with his brothers which he was not particularly happy about. So I do think it will be much better all around tomorrow when the kids are moved out and have much more space and freedom.

Confession time! I have done something rather silly :) Remember me saying how our babies were just over 500 grams, well it appears I have made a rather large mistake. When I weighed them 2 nights ago, I didn't realise that I had put them in the wrong container (I have 3 different containers for weighing our various litters in), and I had forgotten to reset the dial on the scales back to 0. This meant that they were appearing much heavier than they actually are. I can confirm that the Burps all weigh approximately 460 grams which is much more believable than just over 500. I do love our Burps and I do think they are the most beautiful babies in existence (along with our other current babies that is), but I have to be honest and say that they are little fatties, it just can't be avoided. They are like little fat sausages running around on legs bless them. I actually feel a bit sorry for them because no matter where they try to walk/run to, their mum is right on their heels, trying to make them get back into bed. Even now, she still refuses to allow her children to grow up and become a bit more independent. Still, she will learn in time :)

It is a very good thing that our Burps will be in the larger part of the room starting Friday, because they are trying to run around all over the place at the moment and while they have enough space at the moment, I don't think that will be the case by the weekend. They are all doing so incredibly well and already, at this young age, they now weigh just over 500 grams which I'm delighted with. A few of the kids have been showing an interest in their mum's plate and have been walking up to the plate and sniffing it, not that Cointreau ever leaves any food behind. At the moment she is being fed 5-7 wet meals per day and she also has kitten biscuits left out all of the time. Tomorrow, I will set up a small litter tray in the Burps' part of the room as they are approaching that age where they will be looking for places to go to the toilet, although at the rate they appear to be growing, they will just be able to get straight into their mum's large hooded tray. Overall, I am thrilled with how well they are doing, and another thing that pleases me is that they are very used to me going in and out and cuddling them and stroking them, which is a good thing. You will notice that today's photos are all simply named "The Burps" rather than being named individually but I will try to take individual photos again this week (I'm aiming to do this once a week), so that you know which baby is which.

Well at 3 weeks of age, our Burps are little porkers bless them. Graham and I are rather amazed at just how large the babies are. They are doing so incredibly well and have coped with their new house move brilliantly. I did not what Cointreau and the Burps would think of their new flat mates (our older babies), yet they don't seem phased at all. Our older babies were rather taken aback by having an invasion of little white beings who all run around their half of the room. Cointreau is still being very protective of her children and I am wondering how long it will be before they wear her out. For a few days now, the Burps have been really stretching their legs and learning how to use their muscles and they have been running around everywhere which is annoying Cointreau. She goes running after them and then puts her paws on them and grooms them. After that she goes and sits at the front of the box and screams at her children to "get back into bed". I think she feels they are too young to be exploring on their own, but the Burps obviously have other ideas and they are having the time of their lives. They do have a lot more space now than they did in our room and it's good to see them out and about. On Friday, they will be moved out of their smaller half of the room and they will then have full run of the whole room (the door will be closed then). By this stage, they will need more room and the older babies will be moved out of the kitten room permanently on Friday so wit will be fun and games all around. Cointreau will probably never forgive me for giving her children so much more freedom :)